the quest for the sp00n

How to clear iTunes of all unused iOS apps

With so many apps you can try and discard on your iPhone or iPad you can get a huge library of them in iTunes as iTunes doesn’t delete them and keeps updating them even, and it’s a pain in the rear to have to manually go through them all to see which ones you use and which ones you don’t.

Get rid of all the iOS apps in iTunes;

Go to the app section in iTunes, select all, delete.

Clear out any extra apps you may have;

Quit iTunes and check the Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Mobile Applications folder for any remnants.

Re-import the apps from your iOS device(s);

Start iTunes again and File>Devices>Transfer Purchases from (the name of your iOS device), repeat for any iOS device you have.

And of course make sure to make a backup beforehand in case anything does go wrong.